Constant XP Lockups. Assistance Needed

Hi All, I appreciate what this forum is doing. Over the last month my laptop has been constantly locking up. Mainly when running Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. When I check the task manager, the CPU usage is 100% and remains that way until I cold boot it.

I am very cautious about what is installed on my computer I'd like to think that it is virus free, however anything is possible at this point. I have run the following programs and log files are attached:
AVG Antivirus
AVG Anti-Spyware
Bitdefender (Online Scan)
CounterSpy
HiJackThis

If anyone needs any more details, please let me know. Thanks in Advance!

The other issue I have is I am unable to install my AVG 7. I'd like to switch to NOD32, but whenever I try to uninstall AVG, I get the following error:

I realize this is a seperate issue, but I thought I'd mention it as well.

 

Relative to your initial complaint of "lockups" I noticed that you have ctfmon.exe running. This is an advanced text switching tool for use in multi-language environments which has been almost universally activated by IE7. Since it has some application in certain aspects of "Office," rather than removing it, it is best to just turn it off: Control Panel>Regional and Language Options>Languages>Details>Advanced, and check the box for "Turn off advanced text services." When ctfmon decides to run (and who knows why) it often hogs the CPU. May be what's going on for you.

 

Thanks for the tip! I'll give that a try as soon as I get home.

 

If you were really cautious you wouldn't be using Kazza or downloading "Patches and Hackz" like WPA Hack.

Your AVG has removed some Trojans but it looks like they shut down your protection.

Maybe someone help you if you follow ALL the steps in the following link and then post in the Malware forum.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=35407

 

You can lose the attitude, homey. If you've got something constructive, please share. I haven't had Kazaa Lite on my computer in several months. The WPA Hack was downloaded almost a year ago and never used. And I did follow all of the steps in that link.

 

DirtySouth,

The logs you attached were ok except for the P2P which will cause instability. Another thing that would cause a slow down is AVG Anti-Spyware and Windows Defender, running more than one antispy, antivirus or firewall can cause problems with one another.

I would run the below utility to completely remove the P2P Kazza because this is a very bad program. If you're having any problems as in malware please feel free to post in the Malware Removal for further in depth cleaning.

KazaaBegone 1.20

 

Directing you to the Guys in the Malware Forum was constructive, and I'm not your homey.

 

Thanks for the tips, everybody. Anyone have ideas on removing AVG? I've tried using CCleaner & manually deleting the program files, with the associated reg keys, but I'm getting an error that one of the .dll files is protected. I even get that error when I'm safe mode. Yes, I do have full administrative rights.

 

What are you trying to do?

What problems are you having right now with your computer?

 

Over the past few weeks, my laptop has been constantly "locking up" (CPU Utilization goes to 100%). It stays this way until I cold boot. I run AVG Antivirus scans & Spybot on regular basis, but never find anything more than just the usual cookie BS.

So, I came here & read the teh whole Malware removal thread. I performed all the steps. The only thing of any significance that was found was a Trojan hiding in a WPA Hack that I had downloaded a while ago, but never used. I quarantined it and deleted it.

At the same time, I'd like to remove AVG 7.1 & use NOD32 instead. I'm unable to uninstall AVG because of the screenshot error that I get above. Does this answer your question? I will say that in the last few days my laptop has not been locking up at all. That could be coincidence...only time will tell. Thanks

 

BTW, heres the bitdefender log file.

 

Your logs don't show anything that would cause a lockup, the WPA Hack file isn't really an infection just an unwanted file. Most antivirus and antispy programs will flag these files simply because what they do.

When it peaks at 100% in Task Manager can you tell which process is using the resources?

Why do you want to get rid of AVG? I personally use this and think it's the best AV.

 

Thanks for the reply. Typically the browser is by far the number one process running in the Task Manager when the lockup occurs...either IE 7 or Firefox 2.0. I have since removed Firefox and the problem still occurs.

AVG had some irritating prompts that I couldn't seem to change. I had read alot of good things about NOD32 so I wanted to give it a try. It also seems that NOD32 uses far less resources.

 

Just to be sure, I would like you to run the following scans and attach the logs.

Using GetRunKey
Using ShowNew
Panda ActiveScan

I've used AVG for a while now and never had a problem. In my research AVG uses the least amount of resources and Norton uses the most. I don't have any experience with NOD32 but if you want to switch that's up to you.